I already posted this in another topic but felt it was worthy of its own topic to see what all of you think:

I would like to see a black emac. I bet that would make it look a lot cooler.

one idea I have had for a new and cheap mac is to get an emac. I don't like the crt on it as its not near as crisp as my viewsonic 19" pro series. what I plan to do is get one and only use the built in screen to boot and install the dual monitor hack for ibook, imac, emac. put emac on the floor and face it screen toward wall with a plain black dtp so as to not get light from it. set viewsonic as main screen and put emac screen below it in display settings so that I don't lose windows to the right or left.. connect both the emac and my powermac via kvm to my viewsonice + kb/mouse.

my powermac has a dvd burner so I get get the entry level once they are reved again in early 2005. supposed to be a 1.6 G5 or dual core G4 1.5. so for 1000 canadian I can get a super beast compared to the one I already have that runs fine. I get all the power without the emac screen. I will keep the face far enough away from the wall so the combo drive can open in the rare event I will need to use it.

I plan on modding the whole back top and side part that slides off black and leaving the face white (even though you won't see much as it will face the wall. the black and white emac would look nice down next to the black & white powermac.

I have put much thought into this and its the most economical way for me to get a signifigant power increase with new hardware. it would be 3-4 times faster than my current system. plus I will only have to pay 1000-1100 canadian in total and be left with 2 great systems.

I think its a great I dea to scream on a budget. I don't game so an emac will be great for me. you can also squeeze 2GB ram into them now

thoughts? what do you guys think of this idea? it would be a decent system for at least 3 years.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it just be easier to instal a LCD inplace of the old style TV screen that emacs have, like 'Tony' did? ( http://www.macmod.com/content/view/113/2/ ) It looks like a hard mod, but you would have more room... I know that its a bit different with an eMac, but its still the same principal... or do you just not have the deskspace for the entire computer, so you want it as a cheeper tower? Not quite sure what your doing...

how is taking apart an emac and instaling an lcd in place of the crt easier than just installing an open firmware hack on the emac, hooking it to a kvm and putting it on the floor?

never been a fan of lcd anyway. I like a nice high end crt which I have with my viewsonic. I just don't like the emac screen as when I have looked at them I could tell my crt was far better even without it there to compare.

so essentially I just want the emac for its computing guts and will not use the screen. I also don't like the look of the emac much but think the back looks kinda cool. so I get to see the cool back and not the ugly front when its down on the floor.

why not just take the guts out of the emac casing since you don't like it anyway, then, sell the casing and the screen and everything on ebay. I am sure that a pc user would pick it up. Then, build or buy yourself another case and put the guts in there.

Actually, I painted an eMac a really nice jewel green a while back. They look rockin in other colors.

If you're gonna take it apart, some words of wisdom.

First, the power button is attached to the analog display assembly with a wire. the button assembly is somewhat fragile. Be careful, they break easy. In fact, read that last sentence twice for emphasis.

Second, thats a 17" CRT assembly. Most people dont have access to a discharge tool, and havent been trained in ESD safety. So, here's a crash course. DO NOT TOUCH the anode cap, or the anode aperture under the cap. (look for cable and suction cup on CRT. hard to miss, dont touch it!) CRT's, even when powered down for an extended period of time, hold enough electricity to make you lay down and be still for a long time, approx. forever. Trust me on this, I almost killed myself...twice.

Third, dont touch the neck assembly or the flyback transformer on the end of the tube. Remember that electricity part? Yeah. Same deal.

Lastly, you are dealing with a heavy, GLASS tube. Its a vacuum tube. Yes, they suck all the air out of them and fill them with dangerous stuff. If you damage it, it can and probably WILL IMPLODE. This means flying bits of glass everywhere, toxic chemicals, and sharp metal.

All of these things are bad. If you crack or break any of it, its over. Trust me on this. We used to implode old monitors and iMacs in our dumpster. Its dangerous. If you're gonna take the eMac apart, do be careful, and think before you do stuff. An ounce of prevention goes a long way.

Just for the record, even when you do things right, they can go wrong. All the power that flows into the eMac goes through the power port on the main fan assembly, and into the analog display assembly. I had a machine that wouldnt power on, so I followed procedure to test the fan assembly. With the power cable plugged in, I turned on my volt meter and prepared to touch ground to ground so I could measure current. (+120 being the reading I wanted)

well, something was wired wrong. I touched ground to ground and all the current shot through the ground wire. my volt meter took full current, the whole thing sparked insanely, it scorched and flash melted the tip of my ground lead on the volt meter, left a small scorch mark on the chassis, and sent sparks and flaming bits of wire, shielding, and plastic all over the place (read as, into my face) and burnt the entire fan assembly connector head to slag.

All of this happened in about a tenth of a second. I managed to drop the volt meter leads, and yank the power cord out of the eMac instantly, and jump back. the fan assembly was toast, literally, and I burned a small hole in my Apple logo t-shirt.

Whats all that mean, other than being a cool story? I did everything right, followed procedure, and didnt die. But, due to a failure somewhere, everything turned to feces very quickly. Whats the moral? BE CAREFUL!!!

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